FSU is now crazy about basketball

Go crazy, Florida State basketball fans: Your teams are going to the NCAA tournaments. The madness is just beginning

That's right: BASKETBALL. Admit it. Unless you are the stray Gator or Hurricane or Bulldog who has wandered in here, you are getting excited over basketball in this football-crazed place.

Only a handful of schools have successful men’s and women’s programs hitting the mark at the same time each year, and now the 'Noles are among them.

The men’s team is going to the NCAA tournament for the first time since senior guard Toney Douglas was in elementary school; who knows where the freshmen were.

The men should be seeded no worse than a No. 6, according to me. ESPN’s “bracketologist” Joe Lunardi has them at a No. 5. Lunardi is the expert, but, unfortunately, he also has them playing the tournament's first round in Boise.

Douglas has already been named a near-unanimous pick to the All-ACC first-team and could pick up Defensive Player of the Year honors this afternoon. Maybe more.

Douglas will be featured in a special report Sunday – Selection Sunday – in the Tallahassee Democrat and in a multimedia report on Tallahassee.com and Nolesports.com.

And to anyone who does vote for Leonard Hamilton as ACC Coach of the Year: You missed a great season. Who has done more with such a young team than Leonard?

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